Millions of people voted in an online poll in 2015 to have the face of Harriet Tubman on the US$20 bill. But many might not have known the story of her life as chronicled in a recent film, “Harriet.”
Harriet Tubman worked as a slave, spy and eventually as an abolitionist. What I find most fascinating, as a historian of American slavery, is how belief in God helped Tubman remain fearless, even when she came face to face with many challenges.
Harriet Tubman (d 3/10/1913), born and raised in slavery, divined that God wished her to be free. She escaped to freedom, but realized she could not be truly free as long as others were enslaved. So she went back 19 times to “Pharaoh’s Land,” risking death to liberate 300 slaves. pic.twitter.com/voLZQijnAZ
— Robert Ellsberg (@RobertEllsberg) March 10, 2020